A quarterback-centered Bears' coaching staff puts the onus on Mitchell Trubisky

Known for attempting to spin his words into a more palatable manner, Ryan Pace understood the rumblings behind why he hired Matt Nagy as the Bears' head coach. That Nagy, who was enamored with Mitchell Trubisky during the 2017 NFL Draft process, was primarily brought in to turn the 23-year-old into a superstar. In turn, during Nagy's introductory press conference, Pace threw out a flare of sorts to assuage concerns.

"This is about more than the quarterback," Pace said then.

Indeed, whether the Bears climb the mountain and win a Super Bowl will have plenty to do with whether they can successfully build a well-rounded overall roster. On both sides of the ball at that. But for as much of how the Bears, and Pace and Nagy by extension, try to downplay their primary focus in Trubisky: their actions so far don't match their words.

Look at the construct of Chicago's coaching staff and convince yourself there isn't a full investment in the future of Trubisky (as there should be). That this isn't an all-hands on deck effort to maximize the former North Carolina star. Pending free agency in March and April's draft will likely speak more volumes to that end, as the team seeks viable and reliable playmakers for it's hopeful face of the franchise.

However, roster churn is a different beast altogether.

Any acquisition made over the next few months won't be wholly responsible for molding a malleable quarterback. For assisting him in processing his reads properly and rapidly. For ingratiating him into a fast-paced, innovative offense that could launch the Bears into the stratosphere as contenders.

Regardless of any offensive upgrades the Bears make, the same aggressive, seasoned mentorship structure will be in place every day around Trubisky. It's more or less understood they'll do everything in their power to make sure he's at least in position to be capable of special play when live bullets start flying consistently again.

The pedigree and variety of offensive brainstorming minds the Bears' now have on hand is undeniable.

You have Mark Helfrich - the former Oregon offensive coordinator and head coach - that will act in the manner of helping Trubisky comprehend his tempo offensive scheme that his Ducks were once known for. He'll be able to dabble in the design of a comfortable, complex attack plan for Trubisky, while also working his way around the Bears' offense.

Helfrich's eager for the opportunity as evidenced by his own introductory public remarks back in January.

“You can tell a quarterback is coachable watching his feet and his eyes, and his eyes are deliberate. They’re going from one to two to three or (he’s) looking here, high-low on this guy," Helfrich said. "Whatever it is, they’re deliberate. And the other thing that jumped out is his accuracy and taking care of the football. … A quarterback kind of either has that innately, that ability to take care of the football, versus turning it over when he, for lack of a better word, panics.”

A quarterback tutor that won't have to concern himself with play-calling due to Nagy's agenda, Helfrich will have one of the more hands-on roles as the the Bears' offensive coordinator when it comes to Trubisky. He'll take what Trubisky already has and shape it into something more.

There's Dave Ragone, who while many will criticize for his work because of Trubisky's struggles with mechanics in 2017, still clearly made enough of an impact on the passer to convince the Bears he needed to stay on as his quarterback coach. Criticizing Ragone ignores the fact as to how almost every rookie quarterback goes through mechanics issues. It's an integral part of the developmental process that not even the best of position coaches can remedy in one season.

Under the Nagy ideal, Ragone more or less acts as another set of eyes and ears of which Trubisky intently trusts. Having already been with him through the gauntlet, perhaps no one on Chicago's staff will understand where Trubisky's coming from week by week than the growing in his own right Ragone. Having that type of youthful relationship at such a grassroots level of the Bears' organization is a luxury.

Then there's Brad Childress, the recently added offensive consultant and consummate professional. Childress, having coached with Nagy's own mentor in Andy Reid for years as a coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and having been around the NFL for almost two decades, can only add quality input to the progress of Trubisky. After co-coordinating the Chiefs' offense in 2016 with Nagy, he'll be the person that best understands the goals Nagy has for Trubisky from the beginning, with a dash of wise insight.

The man missing is the obvious elephant in the room: Nagy himself. The calculated risk-taker himself.

For as much as he's building an offense that fits the 2018 NFL, like some of his recent counterparts in the Eagles' Doug Pederson and Rams' Sean McVay, Nagy is going to have a responsibility to all 53 players on his roster, not just the quarterback. And like Pederson and McVay, he's taken their same approach to getting a second-year quarterback to evolve.

Piecing together a three-headed monster in the vein of Helfrich, Ragone, and Childress in Chicago, mirrors McVay's complimentary dynamic duo of now former offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur and former quarterback coach Greg Olson. Having that kind of meeting of the minds each day and week in Los Angeles' facility was a tremendous factor into the strides Jared Goff made in his second year.

The Nagy offensive coach Bears' construct is also a similar approach to what the Eagles put into place for Carson Wentz to become an MVP-caliber quarterback before eventually tearing his ACL this past December. Pederson, like Nagy, is a Reid disciple for one, so the comparison fits more to atee. And he had quite the partners in offensive coordinator Frank Reich and John DeFilippo: two men who have been universally praised for their work done with Wentz and the preparation of eventual Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles.

One of the most overwrought cliches about the NFL is that it's a copycat league. Teams are constantly taking roster and scheme plans from each other once they see what's most recently succeeded in the postseason. But this quarterback-driven concept Nagy is driving isn't novel. It's the support system every young quarterback should so have the fortune of being exposed to while they, effectively, grow up.

The results that Goff and Wentz received in their second years aren't guaranteed for Trubisky. That's partly because the book is still being written on the former, and because football isn't played in a vacuum where correlation always equals causation. There hasn't been enough evidence to say Trubisky can put together an excellent 16 games until he proves it on the field. He's also a different player with a different skill set altogether. But it's a solid pillar to lean back on for him, nonetheless.

With this Bears' coaching brain trust in the fold though, when the dust settles on what is sure to be a topsy-turvy off-season, most of the fault in a potential Trubisky failure will lie at his feet. The target has settled squarely on his back.

Past precedent with the Bears means countless quarterbacks that have not only been lacking the talent to play at the highest level, but also routinely placed in position to fail even when they have the ability to shine (Jay Cutler is somewhere clearing his throat). Based on early returns of flashes, Trubisky won't have these reasons to absolve himself.

Nagy and his fresh advisory board are already formulating the optimal manners of fitting their offense around Trubisky, not the other way around. Men from different backgrounds and philosophies creating a fine-tuned machine. The way coaching should be, putting your players in a position to succeed based on what they're capable of first and foremost.

After experiencing some of the most negligible management as a rookie last year, if Trubisky can't succeed with this newfound support from the Bears' coaches: a cold reality will settle in.

He was never going to pan out as a franchise quarterback.

Robert Zeglinski is the Bears' beat writer for The Rock River Times, an editor for Windy City Gridiron, and is a contributor to The Athletic Chicago. You can follow him on Twitter @RobertZeglinski.